The study found that 42% of the North American photo app users are younger than 25 and 55% have never ordered any type of photo output products – let alone products that include any of their smartphone photos.

"The biggest bottleneck for this new generation of photo app users is not the quality of smartphone photos, as is often assumed," says Hans Hartman Principal Analyst at Suite 48 Analytics and lead author of the report. "Only 13% of the photo app users stated that the quality of photos from their smartphone has held them back from ordering photo products. It turns out the bigger problem is a lack of innovative photo product creation and ordering apps, coupled with cumbersome creation and ordering workflows."

According to Hartman, the lack of output product ordering capabilities in the apps is forcing smartphone and tablet users to revert to more complicated and burdensome workflows that involve uploading or transferring mobile device photos to larger screen devices, such as computers or kiosks.

Based on information supplied by survey respondents, Hartman recommends a dual approach to accessing this untapped opportunity:

In order to be successful with the "here and now generation" of photo app users, the industry needs easy apps that enable photo app users to immediately place orders for the simpler photo products (photo printings, greeting cards, mugs, T-shirts, etc.). These could be dedicated photo output product apps or product ordering features added to the more popular photo enhancement or sharing apps.

Both this new generation and the older generation that is more familiar with ordering photo output products on their computer or kiosk, could benefit from easier and more ubiquitous workflows to have their photos at their fingertips at any time, on any device – without needing to plug in cables or USB sticks, or to manually upload photo files. These workflow improvements could be of particular value for the more complex photo products, such as multi-page photo books, which are harder to create on smaller screens.

Finally, the study also measured the potential for innovative photo apps that leverage the unique capabilities of smartphones as a photo taking platform. 34% of the photo app users who have never ordered photo output products containing smartphone photos declared themselves likely or very likely to order photo output products if given an app that automatically requested photos from friends who took photos at the same time and place. The study highlighted these findings as an example of how innovative photo apps could spur demand for photo output products.

Suite 48 Analytics, the leading research and analysis firm for the mobile photography market, conducts app market analysis and research among smartphone and tablet users.

Reports include "The 6Sight Social Imaging Survey," published by 6Sight/PMA, and "The Photo & Video App Market Analysis October Report," and the "Photo Product Ordering in Photo Apps" free white paper. For more information: Suite48A.com.